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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27603464">Three Brothers III - Orthorin Dawncaller</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hedonick/pseuds/Hedonick'>Hedonick</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Battle for Azeroth: Biographies [5]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>World of Warcraft</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alliance War Campaign, Family Drama, Gen, Minor Character Death, World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-07 01:21:03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>10,857</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27603464</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hedonick/pseuds/Hedonick</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Unlike his older brother, who wanted to become a hero like their father, or unlike his twin, who often seems only to be interested in animals and plants, Orthorin Dawncaller looks for the best way to protect and fight for his people – the sin’dorei. To reach this goal, he doesn’t hesitate to adapt to new fighting styles or to try out new sources of power.<br/>Driven by his search for the truth behind his older brother’s death, he and his twin end up in Telogrus Rift, where their lives are changed forever; by being turned into void elves. Unperturbed by this little mishap, Orthorin decides to still make the best of his new life as ren’dorei and with the Alliance: and joins the army.<br/>How will the outbreak of the Fourth War influence his military career? How will his relationship to his twin develop, who feels far more challenged by the whispers of the Void?</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Battle for Azeroth: Biographies [5]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1972672</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Three Brothers III - Orthorin Dawncaller</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>In hindsight, the first seven years of his life were always considered an unusual blessing by Orthorin. Together with his twin Saewron and their seven years older brother Inean they grew up in Fairbreeze Village in Quel’Thalas in the caring charge of their parents Kath’dril and Erezia Dawncaller. <br/>While their mother was a very gentle person, who still managed her own small tailoring business besides the family property, their father was quite a strict but compassionate battle priest, famous for his feats during past wars, like the long bygone Troll Wars or the more recent Second War. Thanks to the back then peaceful era, their father had a lot of time to spend with his children; not only to teach them much about the importance of honorable, just and considerate behavior in life, but also to give them some – eagerly requested – early lessons in swordplay, since the ability to fight for one’s own rights and those of the less privileged was in his eyes as important as the knowledge of ethics. Their mother, on the other hand, was more concerned about their intellectual education, gladly supporting them with their progress in school, although neither Orthorin nor his by seconds younger twin had much trouble in this regard. Erezia was also a very skilled story teller, who introduced them to all the popular legends and histories that were known on Azeroth; especially Saewron loved to listen for whole afternoons to her stories time and again – told while she was sewing something for her shop. Orthorin instead preferred to reenact the things he’d heard – particularly the fights – with Inean, who was always willing to play with his younger brother if he wasn’t occupied by his own tuition.</p>
<p>Their easy-going life changed with the outbreak of the Plague of Undeath in Lordaeron that eventually lead to the invasion of Quel’Thalas by the Scourge. The war against the undead resulted in the destruction of the Sunwell and left Silvermoon widely in ruins with the majority of the high elf population wiped out. <br/>Although Orthorin spent the whole period of crisis together with his twin and their mother beyond danger with the Wildhammer dwarves in the Hinderlands, they still felt severe consequences of the events after their return to Quel’Thalas from their refuge.</p>
<p>From their actual stay with the dwarves Orthorin remembered little beyond that it had generally been quite pleasant, but if he recalled it correctly, this was the time when he had first started to think of his twin as his <em>little</em> brother, simply because of his irrational behavior. Saewron always insisted on sneaking up to the stables of Aerie Peak, where the Wildhammer Clan kept their gryphons; something that had been forbidden to them, because the animals could be quite dangerous, especially to two high elven children that had first learned of them a few days back. His younger twin continued to ignore this rule time and again though, because he was so fascinated by the winged beasts and wanted to study them at all costs or at least snatch one of their shed feathers to craft a quill out of it. <br/>Responsible as Orthorin was, he always accompanied his twin out of caution and bore the dressing down with patience when they were caught. His little brother on the other hand started to cry each time out of remorse and tried to hide behind him, only to suggest another attempt to get into the stables the next day, when he’d obviously forgotten his tears and the prospect to get another glimpse of the creatures was tempting once again. The thing that bugged Orthorin wasn’t even his twins incorrigibility, but that he obviously wasn’t up to judging his two experiences in a rational way, which should have lead him to either stop his attempts because the fun part got negated by the unpleasant part or to enjoy the adventure but also to bear the – expected – consequences with some more dignity.</p>
<p>After their return to Quel’Thalas they moved for security purposes into a smaller – by then mostly restored – house within Silvermoon City. Despite the fact that they were now residing in the capital of the kingdom itself, their school classes contained distinctly fewer pupils than before the invasion and the general atmosphere between the survivors was incredibly glum. Not only the destruction left by the Scourge and the heavy losses suffered to the population contributed to this; additionally they all struggled with the unexpected side effect of the loss of the Sunwell. <br/>The sudden absence of the former well of arcane power left the elves – now calling themselves blood elves – in a sick and weakened state that only grew worse over time. Especially the health of their mother worsened under these circumstances; as she was bed-stricken most of the time. For himself Orthorin soon noticed that – similar to the experience of his older brother – the practicing of sword forms, which was physically far less demanding than actual combat training and done by oneself, had a very calming effect on his body and mind with its repetitive movement patterns and helped to cope with acute phases of magic withdrawal. His little brother seemed to achieve something similar by reading, completely engulfing himself in the fictional worlds within the books. Only their father was able to overcome the effects by sheer will-power and took part in the continued fighting around Silvermoon, striving to expel the still remaining undead and trolls rampaging through the Kingdom of Quel’Thalas, but the lack of success, his families distress and his wife’s condition turned his spirits more and more bitter.<br/>The discovery of the technique to drain arcane power from items – or creatures – containing such energy brought a first broad improvement to the well-being of the inhabitants of Quel’Thalas and hence the recovery of the kingdom, which allowed the everyday life of the Dawncallers to return to some more normality. </p>
<p>At the age of twelve the twins where then able to begin with their apprenticeships; both choosing the combat training of rogues in the end. Its quite agile and complex close combat techniques were less straightforward than the classic two-handed combat style their brother preferred or the shooting with longbow and crossbow that was common among the rangers and neither of the two young elves felt like picking up the profession of a spellcaster, especially not since their father had just abandoned his path as a priest and joined the newly founded blood knights – a paladin order.<br/>Orthorin was pleasantly surprised by his twins choice; he had been somewhat concerned if Saewron – with his lately grown fondness for books and his always strong interest in plants and animals – would maybe choose the path of a scholar, which the older twin would have considered quite a loss. In his eyes the acquisition of knowledge was indeed important, but preferably done by the elderly or physically disadvantaged people, while the young and fit ones should fight and accomplish heroic deeds; not primarily to gain fame and a reputation for themselves – as Inean dreamed about – but for the good of all. And especially now, after the devastating war against the Scourge, he and his brothers both belonged to the few junior fighters that could join the defense of their people in the years ahead anyway. <br/>For himself Orthorin planned to become as skilled and strong as possible and with his adolescence transformed the former childhood urges to play and run about into a disciplined dedication to his new profession, hence he was rather disappointed when his little brother regularly ducked out of training sessions with him – instead preferring to bury his nose in another book or to collect any green stuff for his alchemic adulteration, especially after their older brother had joined the Argent Crusade together with their father and wasn’t often at home anymore.</p>
<p>Five years into their official training, Orthorin learned about a new combat style, that was practiced by the race of humanoid bears living on the recently rediscovered continent of Pandaria. The former slaves hadn’t been allowed to carry any weapons and had thus developed a style of fighting predominantly with merely their bare hands, that was regardless as effective against foes as any other armed combat technique. The concept fascinated Orthorin instantly; if he could already subdue an opponent unarmed, in addition to his abilities with different weapons, this would add another layer of strength to his skill set, that he wanted badly. <br/>It cost him some efforts at persuasion to receive the permission of his parents to first travel to Orgrimmar and afterwards – when he’d won the approval of the monk trainer there – to continue on to Pandaria itself, but in the end he was successful. On the distant continent he was allowed to join an intensive training at the Peak of Serenity, a hidden monastery with training grounds and a refuge for monks located high in the north-central reaches of the Kun-Lai Summit, where he spent the better part of the next nearly two years of his life. <br/>It was easy for Orthorin to adapt to the strictly regimented and disciplined lifestyle of the monks and he made good progress with his training. After the fashion of his favorite master he took to wearing an eye-patch over one of his healthy eyes, which would allow him on the one hand to always have an advantage over his opponent if he suddenly had to fight somewhere dark and on the other hand was a handicap that sharpened his other senses he could depend upon in a fight. He even planned on learning how to fight completely blind, but for the next years this was still a bit of a stretch and so he had to contend himself with this compromise.<br/>When it became apparent that Orthorin would soon travel once more back to the Eastern Kingdoms on the occasion of the Dawncaller family reunion during their father’s and Inean’s furlough, the monk masters decided that he was ready to take the exams to confirm his completion of the basic monk training anyway. Orthorin passed with no trouble and was thereby free to take up tasks as a young monk after his return to his homeland.</p>
<p>The family vacation was marred by the urgent call to arms against the Burning Legion, who had just launched their Third Invasion of Azeroth. Although Orthorin was eager to use his for a long time trained skills in battle, he fully understood that this wasn’t the right moment for an – even only just – under aged sin’dorei to engage in his first war and he settled for more trivial initial quests on behalf of Silvermoon. On some of those he didn’t set out alone but together with his twin, who had by now become an advanced rogue specialized in stealth techniques and quick assassination. <br/>That his reasoning had been more than adequate was proven in a very concerning and sorrowful way; when – with the news of the loss of the Battle for the Broken Shore – they also received the message of Kath’dril Dawncaller’s death and Inean’s severe injury alongside the almost complete obliteration of the Argent Crusade forces, who had been part of the assault on the demons. <br/>Their mother Erezia, who had never fully recovered from the aftermath of the Third War and the destruction of the Sunwell – not even after its restoration – suffered another collapse after learning of the horrible development and especially the loss of her husband. Saewron did quite a lovely job nursing her back to health, which Orthorin gladly left to his twin, since he doubted that he possessed the solicitousness necessary for it, instead he focused on the organizational tasks at hand; like their fathers funeral and keeping them up to date about Inean’s state.<br/>Their older brother returned home some days later. Seeing him noticeably helped their mother to rebound, as did his report of what he and his father had experienced at the Broken Shore. Orthorin still felt a deep sadness about the loss of Kath’dril, but a reinforced sense of pride now joined the feeling: their father as well as their brother hadn’t surrendered the fight or the secrets of their order in the face of certain doom; in their own way they had won the battle against the demons and the only thing that had probably become their father’s demise were his advanced years, which had weakened his physical resiliency. This had to be expected after his great many centuries of service to Silvermoon and its people, but their father also wouldn’t have let himself be stopped from fighting on; and so he had died with dignity doing what he’d judged right.</p>
<p>After the days caring for their mother Saewron still seemed in an attentive mood and shared his concerns regarding Inean’s well-being with Orthorin. He had noticed some changes in their older brother himself – Inean seemed more brooding and less enterprising – but he also knew his little brother’s tendencies to read too much into such things. It was simply normal that Inean acted gloomily after what he’d been through, but obviously he was on the road of recovery; planning his return to the Argent Crusade and the ongoing war against the Burning Legion.<br/>Rather surprising was the letter they received from Inean some weeks later, stating that he had left the Argent Crusade to join the Horde army. Although Saewron’s theory; that their brother was trying to leave hurtful memories behind with the switch, wasn’t unrealistic, Orthorin was still skeptic: for Inean, the Argent Crusade had been the perfect place to be – or at least something far better than any general army – because they held the good of all above some silly faction disputes and followed a noble codex, that coincided with their father’s – his paragon’s – teachings. <br/>However, Orthorin didn’t argue, since for neither theory they knew the necessary facts to support it, so they would have to wait for the next opportunity to ask Inean himself, if they wanted to continue their discussion of the topic. It never came to that though. </p>
<p>A few months later – Orthorin just came back from one of his trips to the Sunfury Spire, where all the news from the fighting on the Broken Isles arrived in Silvermoon – he found his twin in front of their house’s entrance, looking as if he had been hit by a freezing or stasis spell mid reading. He carefully tugged the letter free from his brother’s fingers and scanned the sentences. <br/>“<em>Hero of Emerald Bay</em>... so he made a name for himself. But I don’t think he would be happy if he’d known that it would stay at that.” Inean had wanted to make their father proud with a lifetime of glorious deeds on behalf of their people, not to die after accomplishing a single feat. <br/>“No”, agreed Saewron with a breaking voice, finally casting off his motionlessness. <br/>His twin’s tears that now started to fall triggered an echo in Orthorin and he appreciated having a reason to embrace his little brother tightly, concentrating on the rogue’s pain while refusing to give in to his own emotions. War was like this. People died. They had simply been unlucky to have lost two family members in such a short time, but then again; other families had been wiped out completely. They knew that the same could easily happen to them every time even if they only set out on a simple quest. It still hurt. <br/>He wasn’t sure how long they had been standing next to their mailbox, when Saewron said quietly: <br/>“I don’t want to go back inside.” <br/>Orthorin sighed. “But we can’t stay here forever either, Saew”, he clapped his brother on the back comfortingly, “We have to tell her sooner or later.” <br/>And so they reentered the house together to confront Erezia with the terrible news, receiving the reaction they’d already been worried about.</p>
<p>Something about Inean’s funeral almost a month later felt strange. At first Orthorin was quite puzzled by his own reaction; usually it wasn’t him who displayed such gut feelings, but he soon identified its source after some minutes of focusing meditation: on the one hand, too few members of the Argent Crusade were present relative to the amount of time Inean had been a member of the order and even those seemed somehow insecure about their attendance; on the other hand there were surprisingly many new and diverse faces, that only spoke highly of Inean, or – to be exact – of his deed. <br/>There was nothing wrong with that in general, but it seemed exaggerated. Orthorin had trained often with his brother, the last time only back during their vacation before the Battle for the Broken Shore; he knew how strong a fighter the paladin had been and there simply was no way Inean could have managed something as extraordinary as his admirers made it sound like. Something wasn’t right here, and he was going to find out what.<br/>When he called Saewron on the matter it turned out that the younger elf had noticed similar discrepancies among the funeral guests, but he was hesitant to join Orthorin’s investigations and later on even tried to restrain him from their continuation. <br/>The monk didn’t share his twin’s distaste for his efforts; it didn’t have anything to do with some disrespect for the dead, he merely wanted to correct his by false assumptions misguided former judgment of the events around Inean’s death and that seemed to him quite reasonable. On the other hand, he could also guess his little brother’s path of thought, since he often let his emotions get the better of him and was afraid that the inquiries would reveal something up to now unknown about Inean’s death that he would consider unpleasant. This had always been a flaw in Saewron’s – and their mother’s – character; sometimes they simply ignored or misinterpreted facts in one way or another based on irrational reasons and often this made matters worse for them in the end.</p>
<p>When they had still been young children and had spent a lot of time playing in the woods around Fairbreeze Village, Saewron had occasionally discovered abandoned or injured little animals which he then had taken home in the hope that they could be nursed back to health – often against one’s better judgment; abandoned Springpaw Lynx cubs couldn’t just be brought up by elves, they were animals that belonged in the wild and couldn’t be turned into indoor pets; not yet fully fledged birds wouldn’t suddenly be able to survive on their own, even if they got patched up. <br/>Sometimes their father had healed the animals and they had been successfully released back into the wild, but every time he had refused to do so – because rationally considered it had been pointless – his decision fell on deaf ears and Saewron simply went on to their mother, who had – unwilling to confront either her little darling or herself with the bitter truth – always tried her best to help, but thus had ultimately only increased the disappointment. </p>
<p>This time Orthorin wouldn’t spare his little brother the truth, but Saewron was also right; their mother wasn’t in a condition to be confronted with unnecessary excitement, so he would respect his wish in that regard.<br/>Eventually their mother still came to know everything; that Inean hadn’t directly returned to the Argent Crusade after he’d left Silvermoon and that he’d apparently learned to use some strange magics in the meantime, which lead to his exclusion from the holy order and had made him join the Horde army instead. She took the news in better than expected and even helped them solve the last remaining mystery of the investigations; what the matter with the foreign blue-purple magic was and where Inean could have learned of it. <br/>To confirm their suspicions and also at the explicit request of Erezia, they set out some days later in search of Magister Umbric, the mage who illicitly studied the powers of the Void and had therefore been exiled some years back.</p>
<p>Their little private quest turned into a rather extended paper-chase, that ended on the fragmented remains of a Void-infested, destroyed world, now called the Telogrus Rift. Here Magister Umbric and surprisingly large number of his followers had established a sprawling research complex specialized in many different topics associated with the Void.<br/>The main reason for their coming was resolved quickly; the Magister didn’t deny that their older brother had visited him and the exiles in the Ghostlands before their transition to the Telogrus Rift and he assumed that the paladin had used some of the knowledge gained through the studies of their abandoned former research, despite the scholars warnings of its dangers. After that, the Magister ignored Orthorin’s inquiries after this research in quite a suspicious manner, which only increased the monks curiosity. Since he couldn’t get any more details out of the scholar in that regard despite several attempts, he instead asked after their current research, about which Umbric was happy to provide information and the subsequently enfolding discussion lasted the whole afternoon. In essence the Magister and his people were positive that the allegedly dangerous powers of the Void could be used beneficially – for example against the Burning Legion, since they were also convinced that generally every form of power could be subdued with the appropriate tools and willpower, regardless of its – potentially <em>evil</em> – origin, but for the moment they were still feverishly searching for a suitable way of harnessing the powers of the Void.<br/>Saewron had wandered off sometime during the lengthy conversation with Magister Umbric, and Orthorin didn’t see him again until the evening. The monk had already reached the decision that he wanted to extend their stay with the exiles for some time, preferably until he had figured out what Inean had learned, and he had concocted an elaborate plan to convince his little brother, who would probably insist on returning home as soon as possible. He wouldn’t ask straight away for an extensive prolongation, but instead seek an increment. <br/>As expected Saewron broached their leaving the moment they met again, but he was quite easy to persuade; contrary to the norm he seemed to immediately accept the older twin’s rational arguments concerning the already advanced daytime. Surprised but contented, Orthorin then went looking for the Magister once again, after they had picked up something to eat at the local inn, that had been established in another one of the many big tents on the different floating isles of the Rift.</p>
<p>The next day didn’t bring the desired insights though, but instead changed Orthorin’s and Saewron’s lives forever. As soon as Orthorin woke up in the morning, he went once more to see the Magister, but today the scholar wasn’t willing to spend much time with him and was busy with his work. <br/>The monk still stayed near the leader of the exiles and hence witnessed firsthand the meeting between Magister Umbric and the only just arrived Alleria Windrunner. He wasn’t less awed than the mage by the presence of this famous quel’dorei, who had been presumed dead since the destruction of Draenor decades ago, but had now reappeared together with her lover Turalyon as a member of the Army of the Light during the war against the Burning Legion on Argus. <br/>Magister Umbric himself showed Alleria and the Alliance champion accompanying her around. Finally they also arrived at the ancient, mysterious cube on which Umbric had worked all morning together with other sin’dorei and where Orthorin was still waiting for his chance to engage the Magister in conversation one more time. The last thing the monk caught was that the strange cube was opened against all odds just while Umbric inspected the item with his guests and something seemed to break free from it; then his body and mind were suddenly paralyzed by an overwhelming magical force.</p>
<p>He was eventually freed after Alleria and the Alliance champion had been able to kill the Void-corrupted ethereal Nether-Prince, who had tried to turn them into his mindless servants of the Void. Orthorin immediately realized that, although the horrible ritual had been interrupted, it had already partially succeeded; he – as well as all the other blood elves that were present in the Telogrus Rift – could now hear the menacing voices of the Void in his own head and his body had been irreversibly transformed. <br/>He didn’t pay much attention to his now blueish pale skin and his a light navy blue hair, even the whispers seemed to him – with the help of some meditation and self-control – manageable, more eerie was his newly developed responsiveness to void energies, that showed itself in two different ways. One he couldn’t quite grasp yet; he seemed to be able to mentally feel – and maybe even access? - the Void. The other was quite obvious: small tentacles now sprouted on top of his head and some larger ones on the back of his neck in between his hair. They felt smooth and slightly soft. While only reacting weakly to his touch, they suddenly started to tingle and wiggle whenever one of the void energy lightnings flashed near him. <br/>The first time he noticed this he actually felt a pang of horror at the sight and the amused laughs of the whispers at his reaction didn’t make it any better, but – after some deep, calming breaths – the sight of similar tentacles adorning the hair of several exiles around him had a reassuring effect. At least he wouldn’t be the only one that had to get used to this new… feature of his body, and maybe it would even prove useful as an additional perceptual sense.<br/>After he’d overcome this first shock at his transformation he became aware of Magister Umbric and Alleria talking not far off. Around them a group of exiles started to gather, and Orthorin decided to simply wait here instead of setting out on a search for his twin. Saewron had once more disappeared in the morning, but the monk assumed that he would soon show up here like all the others present in the Rift. They would have to discuss the event with the leader of the exiles and decide on its consequences.</p>
<p>The most prominent of the consequences was determined quite fast: the ren’dorei, as Umbric and Alleria called their new people, would join the Alliance in exchange for the Windrunner sister’s guidance. In her recent past with the Army of the Light she had already made contact with the powers of the Void herself and had found a teacher in Locus-Walker, who had been her comrade in suffering during their captivity in the hands of the Burning Legion. Now she herself was willing to pass his teachings on to them, so they would be able to control their new powers and the constant whispers of the Void without turning mad. <br/>While Saewron showed himself rather upset by this announcement, Orthorin wasn’t very concerned. Yes, their mother wouldn’t be pleased by their involuntary faction change, but in the end this didn’t alter a lot. Soon they wouldn’t have spent much time at home anymore anyway, since with their coming of age they needed to venture out into the world to make use of their professions and they would still be able to meet on neutral ground. For themselves this wasn’t much of a change either; whether they now started to gain their reputation with the Horde or the Alliance amounted to the same thing; they were rookies anyway and neither of them cared much about the faction their people belonged to in the end. The second, rather annoying consequence was that they would have to stay in the Telogrus Rift until Alleria and the Magister considered them familiar enough with their new nature, so that they wouldn’t become a danger to themselves and – even more so – others.<br/>The latter wasn’t a big challenge to Orthorin. The first technique they learned from Alleria during the next days ultimately received the name <em>ren’endal</em> and wasn’t much different from the meditation he had already learned at the Peak of Serenity years ago, or at least it started out the same way: one had to achieve a state of utter calm, where thoughts and particularly emotions receded into the distance. The trick then was to keep this self-distancing up even after the end of the meditation itself, to prevent in particular all forms of negative emotions from turning into a weak point to attacks from the whispers. <br/>His fast mastery of the technique turned him into a well-liked coach for quite a few other ren’dorei and earned him even Alleria’s respect. This and the enhanced contact with the other void elves aside from the previous talks about their studies drove away Orthorin’s initial concerns regarding his affiliation with this new people and he was soon confident enough to try his best to present the ren’dorei to the eyes of the public in the proper light. <br/>His little brother on the other hand struggled heavily with his new nature and the ren’endal. Despite Orthorin’s support he wasn’t able to enter or hold the ren’endal reliably even after days of training and the monk was actually clueless on how to further help his twin; he had been at a similar loss when he’d tried to introduce Saewron to meditation years ago, but back then at least it had only been for fun. Now his little brother’s inability to achieve such a state of aloofness seemed at least to already cost him some sleep judging by his constant yawning during their training – the even if unsubstantial still constant whispers of the Void were nevertheless as annoying as a sustained tinnitus – and although he wasn’t going insane yet, as some other ren’dorei had in the past days, the danger was there, as long as Saewron didn’t finally master his emotions and this worried Orthorin deeply.</p>
<p>Because of this the monk was even more shocked when he – during his first permitted trip out from the Telogrus Rift – learned that their mother had passed away in the meantime. Not only was he saddened by the loss of Erezia Dawncaller, he immediately feared his little brother’s reaction to this news. <br/>Orthorin wasn’t used to such a thing; he usually had no trouble rationalizing and adjusting his own feelings based on objective observations of the world around him, but this wasn’t possible with another person’s emotions and their often times illogical reactions. He only knew that he – especially now after all these deaths in their family – didn’t want to loose his twin too, because even if he often teased him for his scholarly behavior and his irrationality, he still loved his little brother dearly. <br/>He suddenly understood how Saewron must have felt back after Inean’s death. His own way of thinking was maybe a little grim, but he hadn’t been as worried about the effect of her firstborn’s decease on Erezia because in his opinion, their mother had been dying since the Third War and every day she lived on had been a gift already. Saewron on the other hand; he was young and healthy, Orthorin had never thought he would have to be afraid of loosing him soon – apart from always possible accidents of course. But if he actually went insane under the influence of the whispers of the Void…. <br/>Just as they hadn’t had a choice back then, he didn’t have one now either; he had to return to the Telogrus Rift and deal with the consequences.</p>
<p>It didn’t go too well. Upon Orthorin’s call his twin was actually able to embrace the ren’endal and when the monk told him about their mothers decease, his little brother stayed quite calm at first. Then though, the ren’endal shattered and he was overwhelmed by his emotions and the whispers worse than ever before. <br/>Orthorin’s attempts to talk to him didn’t work and his little brother – crouching on the floor and cradling his head in his arms – suddenly turned a deep Void-like blue from head to toe and shadowy tentacles appeared all over his body, which reached out, trying to get a hold on potential bystanders. Orthorin recoiled feeling horribly helpless. <br/>The presence of mind of a nearby discipline priest probably saved Saewron; during the Pain Suppression spell he was fortunately able to access the ren’endal once again, banishing the hostile symptoms of uncontrolled powers of the Void. It wasn’t a permanent success though, and the help of the priests was needed a few additional times. <br/>After his little brother had fallen into an exhausted and restless sleep in the evening, Orthorin was visited by Alleria Windrunner, who had of course noticed his twins troubles this late afternoon. <br/>“I’m saddened by your loss. I’ve known Erezia only briefly, but I remember her as a kind and loving wife to Kath’dril. Your father fought under my command against the Horde during the Second War. I’m sorry to hear that they’ve now both left us.” <br/>“Thank you”, Orthorin answered formally and waited, already suspecting that the condolences weren’t the only reason for her visit. <br/>“I realize that this was something of a special case today, but I hope for your twin’s sake that we can help him get over his grief swiftly”, she continued as expected, “I’ll be frank with you; I was already concerned about him before, but am even more so after today’s events. I don’t want to loose another void elf; you are as dear to me as if you were my own children, but I also can’t ignore your brother’s threat to himself and to others. At the moment there’s still time, but if he won’t be able to master the whispers soon, I’m uncertain whether it’s wise to let him struggle on – for our people’s and his own good.” <br/>“I’m aware of that and I’ll do my best”, Orthorin’s voice and expression stayed calm and smooth thanks to the ren’endal, but internally he still noticed his guts turning to ice at Alleria’s words.</p>
<p>The next day, Orthorin – after having spent quite a troubled night himself – quickly noticed that his twin’s mood was still heavily affected by yesterday’s events; even though he could maintain the ren’endal, he was extremely absentminded. <br/>At the lunch table Orthorin’s patience with his little brother finally run out; he couldn’t remain in this state any longer, he had to stop moping about and start thinking rationally. The monks arguments weren’t well received though; for some mysterious reasons Saewron seemed convinced that he was to blame for Erezia’s death. <br/>As soon as Orthorin perceived that his little brother couldn’t be swayed, he reached a decision: maybe it was time to try something different. Whenever Saewron had one of his irrational fits up to now, they had always gone along with them more – in Erezia’s case – or less – in Orthorin’s case – willingly. Therefore it was no wonder he’d never had a reason to change his behavior. This time the monk decided to simply reject his little brother’s sentiment instead of showing sympathy.</p>
<p>A short time later Orthorin wasn’t that sure anymore if he’d done the right thing. Maybe he shouldn’t have left his twin behind like this. Beneath one of the few blackened and dead remains of a tree he sat down and adopted a meditative stance, hoping that the technique would help him sort out his thoughts.<br/>The words he had spoken to Saewron had turned out harder then he’d intended. Initially he’d only wanted to point out to the rogue that there was maybe another reason behind his dissatisfaction than his inexplicable sense of guilt. Orthorin had planned to accompany this by a gentle warning that he couldn’t afford such follies anymore and demonstrate his own way of thinking, but halfway through his speech sudden anger had overtaken him despite the ren’endal. <br/><em>The Alliance and the ren’dorei are as good a place to set out into my life as were the Horde plus the sin’dorei. I won’t let you take that from me.</em> Why had he said that? He focused on his regular breathing and delved deeper into his recent memories. Why had he gotten so upset? Strangely something in Saewron’s words had sparked… guilt in him too. Not because he felt responsible for their mother’s death, that was nonsense, but it had been him, Orthorin, who had insisted on them staying a day longer in the Rift and because of that they had been turned into void elves. Was it his fault then, if Saewron couldn’t manage their new nature and would maybe even die because of it? Should he feel bad too about what had happened to them, instead of making the best of it? <br/><em>You should apologize to him. You have ruined his life.</em> No! Orthorin resolutely clenched his fists and brushed the suggestions of the whispers aside. That was stupid. He couldn’t have anticipated that something like that would happen, and neither could he change it. If his little brother couldn’t accept that, well, in the end that wasn’t his problem. He shouldn’t worry so much about his twin, that obviously only drew the whispers of the Void. Instead he needed to focus on his own future, which he could control.</p>
<p>Surprisingly during the next days they all made good progress with their combat training which served the purpose to accustom them to the physical effects of the powers of the Void. Maybe his tactic in dealing with his little brother’s mood had actually worked or maybe it had been something else that had brought Saewron to his senses, the monk didn’t actually care. In any case, even his twin seemed fairly successful with his progress, although partly that was due to a little pet fox that now accompanied him all the time and seemed to help him keep the whispers at bay. <br/>Orthorin himself wouldn’t have liked to be dependent on an animal in such a way, especially since having pets was a thing for children in his opinion, but Alleria seemed to accept this solution; at least she didn’t mention their conversation about his twin again. Even Erezia Dawncaller’s funeral passed smoothly, although Orthorin himself had to admit that it felt strange to be treated as a potential enemy by the Silvermoon Guardians during the ceremony and to finally say goodbye to the distant capital of the sin’dorei – their home for many years – for an indefinite amount of time.</p>
<p>Not much later they were finally judged ready by Magister Umbric and Alleria Windrunner to join in with the regular Alliance efforts across Azeroth. A large group of ren’dorei who had already fought in wars before their transformation immediately left with the two leaders to rally to the Alliance’s support in the Battle for Lordaeron. A smaller group of non-combatants and scholars – along with that one elf that had welcomed them in the Telogrus Rift weeks ago and seemed to have befriended his twin – stayed behind to continue their research and to coordinate their people from this base of operations. <br/>The rest of them was sent to Stormwind where they were called upon to pick up missions to improve the void elves’ allegiance with the Alliance. Orthorin had an additional plan for himself; he’d decided to join the Alliance military with the aim of climbing the ranks and enter one of the elite regiments like the 7th-Legion as soon as possible. It wasn’t that he was suddenly much more interested in warfare, but to fight for the army was in his opinion the most reliable way of gaining reputation with their new allies and to prove the worth of the ren’dorei to them. Furthermore the strict structure and discipline of the military felt very familiar to him after his training with the monks and to him this was something to be appreciated. Thanks to his youth and the recommendation of Umbric as well as Alleria he had no problems getting accepted into the lowest rank of soldiers.</p>
<p>The first small campaigns sent him to Zandalar, the island in the South Sea that was the homeland of the Zandalari trolls, with whom the Horde was trying to establish an allegiance. In order to disrupt the Horde’s efforts and to keep an eye on their enemies, the Alliance needed to secure some footholds across the three different regions of the island: Zuldazar in the south, Vol’dun in the northwest and Nazmir in the northeast, a task easily accomplished, that secured Orthorin his first promotion.<br/>After this first step in the war against the Horde, their newest and thus still vulnerable allies were targeted, like for example the San’layn, the vampyr blood elves that were previously in the service of the Scourge and who first had been spotted working in Vol’dun. The chase after their leader, Blood Prince Dreven, across Nazmir wasn’t successful though and he escaped. Instead the focus was shifted to the Bilgewater Cartel with their Azerite business and its leader, the Trade Prince Gallywix, whose whereabouts had been reported as exposed. With the help of Magister Umbric himself he actually could be tracked down and attacked, only to reveal that he was merely a body double. <br/>Soon after these two disappointments, the tide finally turned. Orthorin and his squad were sent with Falstad Wildhammer and his gryphon riders to interrupt an underwater mission from the Horde. Two lonely ships where spotted in the open sea; the Banshee’s Wail and the Crimson Squall. The first ship was too well protected, with Nathanos Blightcaller himself aboard, but the second one could be sunk and the also present Blood Prince Dreven was killed this time.<br/>The next step of the campaign was to prepare for the attack on the Zandalari capital, to weaken the forming bond between the Horde and the native trolls, who were famous for their powerful fleet. For this reason, several anchorages across Zuldazar were infiltrated in order to secretly attach bombs to the ships of the Golden Fleet – for later use.<br/>With Jaina Proudmoore in the lead, newly promoted to Lord Admiral, an attack of the Horde against the northwest of Tiragarde Sound could be easily thrown back, before an additional step of the campaign was initiated. The Abyssal Scepter, which was previously stolen from Boralus by the Horde, had to be reclaimed out of the Zandalari Treasury. Lady Jaina’s and Magister Umbric’s joint efforts were up to opening a portal directly into the Treasury, and with the assistance of Master Mathias Shaw and Flynn Fairwind, who disarmed the various traps inside the facility, the artifact was returned. <br/>With it, Lady Jaina was able to craft a thick fog that helped set up a distraction in Nazmir, to lure out the Zandalari forces from Dazar’alor. With this obscuration only a small part of the Alliance force was needed to pretend an attack on the borders of Zuldazar, drawing the attention of the trolls away from their capital. Hence the naval attack on Dazar’alor was a full success and resulted in the destruction of the majority of the Golden Fleet, that was still defending the Port of Zandalar, thanks to the bombs attached previously, followed by the relatively easy invasion of the City, the death of King Rastakhan after he refused to be imprisoned and the planned retreat of the Alliance fleet back to Boralus. <br/>The Battle of Dazar’alor still didn’t end completely without any costs on their side though, Lady Jaina was left injured – but thankfully recovered swiftly – and High Tinker Gelbin Mekkatorque only narrowly escaped his death, ending up in some sort of coma. Nonetheless Orthorin’s effort’s on behalf of the ren’dorei drew lots of praise and granted him further advancement in the military ranks as a sergeant.</p>
<p>A short time after the Battle of Dazar’alor, a small group of ships belonging to the Horde fleet under the command of Nathanos Blightcaller were reported to sail from Zandalar into the Great Sea in possession of another powerful artifact. The Alliance fleet immediately took up pursuit, but ended up trapped in Nazjatar by Queen Azshara together with their prey. <br/>Orthorin belonged to the first unit that was – made possible by the Hearth of Azeroth that allowed the secret usage of a portal between Nazjatar and Boralus – sent to support the forces that were taken hostage in the kingdom of the naga. <br/>It was soon discovered that Lady Ashvane, who had been broken out of Tol Dagor by the Horde earlier, was now allied with these vicious sea creatures and provided them with Azerite weapons. As a result of this collaboration, the naga forces were a very strong opponent. To have a chance to gain access to the Eternal Palace, where Queen Azshara resided, they had to form a temporary alliance with the Horde forces and their supporters, who were also trapped in Nazjatar. Orthorin didn’t mind this cooperation at all, although especially the night elves – who had lost their home Teldrassil to the Horde attack at the beginning of the war – were quite dissatisfied. <br/>After they were finally able to breach the defensive ring of troops around the palace and while the Alliance and Horde rallied their forces before entering the imposing structure, the monk found some moments to examine their unexpected allies calmly. Even though he had already made the acquaintance of the Illidari on the side of the Alliance over the past months, who were usually fighting together as special elite units, he was rather fascinated by the sin’dorei demon hunters present. He’d never seen one of those before, since they had only just emerged out of nowhere during the earliest assaults of the Burning Legion against Azeroth in the past year and had – reportedly – fought relentlessly on the front line during the whole war, which had ended while Orthorin and Saewron had still been chasing after the Magister and his exiles.</p>
<p>A small group of three Horde Illidari caught his attention, who made the impression that they too, weren’t overly happy about their collaboration with the Alliance, one of them a female and two of them males. He eyed the demon hunter standing closer to him, who had a pair of impressive curved horns at his forehead, a blindfold over his eyes and black hair that fell freely down as far as his lower back. <br/>Wasn’t that rather impractical in a fight? Although at least one’s view couldn’t get obscured by any hair, if one didn’t depend on normal eyesight to see. Still, Orthorin definitively preferred his shorter hair; he had even been slightly worried if the new tentacles would maybe provide an opponent with an unwanted option to hold onto, but so far this hadn’t been the case. Anyway!<br/>The demon hunters were another group of initial blood elves who had basically been transformed into their own people, even though the Horde Illidari were still regarded as part of the sin’dorei in contrast to the ren’dorei. <br/>But were they actually that much different from them in the end? While the void elves had access to the powers of the Void, the Illidari did the same with the fel energies, which weren’t particularly less frowned upon. Their leader Illidan Stormrage simply had the advantage that he’d just won the favor of both factions for his people before the question had arisen to join either of their ranks, while Magister Umbric had alienated the Silvermoon government. But apart from that; he’d heard that the Illidari were similarly challenged by controlling their inner demon as the ren’dorei by the voices of the Void. One could argue that the demon hunters had undergone bigger changes accompanying the receipt of their powers. The Illidari had been transformed into half-demons; not only broadly affecting their bodies, but also their whole combat style, while the void elves had indeed been physiognomically changed too, but they had only access to a new source of power and enhanced their usual abilities with it; they still weren’t partly a creature of the Void because of it. <br/><em>Yes, that’s why we are that much easier to control. We aren’t a part of your body. You can simply shut us out and then we can’t affect you anymore.</em> The voices whispered distantly, held at bay by the aloofness of the ren’endal. What they said actually sounded logical for once.<br/>Out of habit he’d assumed a meditative stance during his musing and as he now reopened his patch-less eye concluding his thoughts, he noticed that the demon hunter he’d examined before was currently returning the favor. The monk nodded once in acknowledgment, which the sin’dorei Illidari only answered with a frown. <br/>“An honor to work with you”, Orthorin said unperturbed in Thalassian, which noticeably irritated the demon hunter even further; exactly as intended. It seemed like a good idea to remind those sin’dorei of their mutual heritage regardless of their faction to ease the tensions between them for the upcoming fight against the naga Queen. <br/>“Likewise”, the other returned in the same language after some hesitation with the typically raspy voice of an Illidari, “Just keep your distance in a fight, or we may cause an explosion.” <br/>Orthorin decided to take that with humor – he’d heard from several veterans of the Broken Isles that fel and void magics didn’t mix well – and smiled, reassuring: “I’ll take good care.”</p>
<p>The subsequent storming of the Eternal Palace and the fight against Queen Azshara with the following liberation of the trapped fleets and their crews actually went quite smoothly, despite something strange that had happened at the Circle of Stars, where the leader of the naga had met her demise. Through the Queens doings, an impalpable being had been freed from its titan prison right before her defeat, that was identified as the Old God N’Zoth. It seemed that both Alliance and Horde had been used skillfully, and their attempts to free the hostages and the empowerment thereby of the Heart of Azeroth had played right into the hands of Azshara.<br/>At least the open faction war had been temporarily settled by now, so they would all be ready to stand united against this new threat to Azeroth. While Orthorin had still been busy with clean-up operations in Nazjatar, the Alliance and the revolutionary part of the Horde had won against Sylvanas’ Loyalists in a short siege of Orgrimmar; or at least Sylvanas had been exposed as a traitor to the Horde and abandoned her position as Warchief, leading her supporters to capitulate to the revolutionary faction and hereby ending the Fourth War with an armistice.</p>
<p>The fight against N’Zoth was already well underway, when Orthorin – on his way back from the scrapping machine – ran into his twin in Boralus, who took the opportunity to finally hand him the ominous letter delivered to him by a courier in Stormwind, that he had written about to the monk days earlier. <br/>Orthorin only briefly scanned the message, which was obviously crafted by the hand of a professional scribe and invited him to a meeting in an inn in the old Dalaran over Crystalsong Forest. <br/>“I really don’t know why you couldn’t just send the letter to me.” <br/>“Well, we haven’t seen us in quite a long time”, Saewron argued, “And I wanted to personally congratulate you to your success in Nazjatar.” <br/>Orthorin raised an eyebrow. “I wasn’t aware that you tend to make sarcastic compliments by now.” <br/>“What?! No, that was meant in honesty!” <br/>“Then you are even more naive than I thought. Our so called <em>success</em> unleashed a vicious Old God upon our world, in case you haven’t noticed. That’s not exactly an achievement to compliment anyone for.” <br/>“Um, I meant…. Yes, I know”, his little brother stumbled about, hugging that ridiculous pet fox to his chest, “But you were successful in doing what you were initially sent to achieve; you freed the hostages and even defeated Azshara. That’s what I meant. You couldn’t suspect that everything was a ruse!” <br/>The monk shook his head, “It may not have been obvious, but we should have started to wonder why the naga didn’t just destroy our forces right away. They clearly had a goal in mind and to simply play with us was a rather weak reason for the whole effort. But anyway, its too late for that now. What's done cannot be undone”, he crossed his arms in front of his chest and impatiently eyed Saewron, “But what did you expect me to do about that letter, since you clearly anticipate some kind of immediate reaction.” <br/>His twin first had to jump out of harms way, as a merchant with a carpet roll over one shoulder decided to take an abrupt turn right next to them – they were standing in a rather busy spot of Tradewinds Market – before answering. <br/>“Not really. As I said, I mainly wanted to see you once again. And, well, I accepted the invitations. The date is still some days off, so….” <br/>“Invitations?! You mean both of them?”, the monk interrupted. <br/>“Um, yes. It sounds interesting, don’t you think? Rather mysterious in fact. I definitely want to find out who sent those letters.” <br/>“Good for you, but not everyone has that much spare time to waste some of it by traveling across half of Azeroth to attend <em>mysterious</em> meetings with anonymous people.” <br/>“There is a portal….” <br/>“I know that. Thank. You.” He couldn’t keep the annoyance out of his voice any longer. Who exactly did his little brother think he was? Accepting invitations in his stead without even asking for his consent. <br/>“I can’t guarantee anything. If I actually find the time, maybe I’ll join in, otherwise: enjoy yourself. And I really have to get back to my squad now. I only intended to quickly drop of some scrap before our next drill.” With that he bade farewell to his little brother and set out on his way back to the military barracks, nimbly dodging between clusters of people. <br/>It hadn’t been a petty excuse. He actually didn’t know if he would find the time. In contrast to his little brother, who hadn’t chosen a permanent job but instead moved hand over hand from one mission to another whenever it pleased him without any regard to his achievements on behalf of the ren’dorei, he himself followed a rather tight schedule. Although, he probably should be thankful that his little brother hadn’t gone insane by now. If Saewron manged that with the help of a lax lifestyle, he probably had to count that as a win already, even if it didn’t <em>directly</em> improve the ren’dorei’s reputation.</p>
<p>Already late to the appointment, Orthorin still set out to Dalaran days later, after he’d finally managed to break free from his squad members and their planning for the raid on Ny’alotha. Even though admitting this to himself annoyed him even more than the date had in the first place, he couldn’t simply let his little brother attend this meeting alone. The irredeemable dreamer most likely hadn’t even thought of the possible dangers of such a strange, anonymous appointment. With some luck, he wouldn’t be too late to do something, if it had come to the worst.<br/>When he carefully entered the Legerdemain Lounge, his worries were replaced by surprise though. Sitting at the table across from his little brother sat a figure that, although changed in more than one way, was clearly identifiable as Inean. <br/><em>Such joy! Now you three can play happy little family once again, with your older brother in charge.</em> As always Orthorin easily dismissed the distant voices and stepped up to the table. <br/>“My, my! To become the Hero of Emerald Bay seems to have won you the favor of the Lich King”, he commented smiling and reached a hand out to his brother, which he clasped firmly. <br/>“Good to see you too, Rin”, the elder returned the greeting with the typical chill voice of a death knight, rising and pulling him into a short half embrace before examining him curiously.<br/>As usual Orthorin felt a slight tingling in his tentacles under the sudden attention, but instead of letting himself get unsettled by that, he in turn inspected Inean. His pallor and the faint blue tinge to his skin could’ve probably been explained through his resurrected state alone, but his now dully black hair reminded Orthorin a little too much of tentacles with its straggly nature. <br/>“So, looks like your experiments with the powers of the Void have left a lasting imprint; you’re a void elf too!”, the monk stated with a touch of complacency, earning a confirming smirk from the older brother and a startled gasp from his little brother. <br/>“Oh c’mon, Saew. You can’t be that dreamy. Don’t tell me you haven’t noticed already.” Disbelievingly he shook his head, then pulled over an additional chair and seated himself at their table. <br/>“Actually: no, I haven’t noticed”, Saewron admitted freely to his credit, then added – flashing his eyes at him: “But since I don’t primarily divide the world into ren’dorei and non-ren’dorei like you, I was more so focused on the fact that our dear brother is alive once more.” <br/>“Yes, about that”, Orthorin turned his attention back to Inean, who had watched their exchange with an irritated frown, “Just to put this on record first; I’m absolutely delighted about your revival, and I hadn’t considered something like that up till now, but – no offense – if I, in the Lich King’s place, had to choose someone of our family to rise as my death knight, I would have decided upon Kath’dril because of his experience.” That caught him an indignant look from Saewron across the table, but Inean actually nodded. <br/>“You’re right about that. I would have picked him too.” <br/>“So, why you?”, the monk asked, “The only logical reason I can think of is, that you managed something important concerning the powers of the Void before your death, which would also explain your transformation into a ren’dorei.” <br/>“To be honest; I think it was just a blessing in disguise”, the death knight confessed with a shrug, “After my death I found myself in a rather… unpleasant situation. Bolvar discovered that somehow and showed mercy.” <br/>“But you must have done <em>something</em> special to become the Hero of Emerald Bay!”, Orthorin insisted.<br/>“Well, about that…”, Inean began slightly reluctant, “I think I should probably start at the beginning, with my search for the Magister.” <br/>“On which you set out <em>instead</em> of your return to the Argent Crusade”, the monk amended, “as we already know, as well as that you were later <em>expelled</em> from them.” <br/>Confronted with his lies, the older brother at least had the decency to look guilty.<br/>“Seriously?”, Saewron interrupted, “Give him a break, Rin! You can’t still be mad about that.” <br/>“As already stated back then; I’m not mad. I never was”, he rectified with annoyance, “I simply want to understand the reasons behind those lies.” <br/>Inean uttered a regretful sigh. “I wanted to protect all of you. And I knew Erezia wouldn’t have agreed with my decision. But at that time… it seemed the only thing possible to me.”</p>
<p>With that, the death knight started the summary of his experiences following their father’s funeral, from his own paper-chase after the exiles and his studies of Dar’Khan Drathir’s plus Umbric’s earlier research at Dawnstar Spire, over his actual return to the Argent Crusade and their seemingly hopeless fight against the Burning Legion on the Broken Isles, up to his attempts to access the Void magics and his transition into the army of the Horde. There, Inean also admitted, he’d started to have serious problems related to his approaches to the powers of the Void.<br/>“By the way, if you still need any information about how to cope with the whispers, you should probably ask Saew”, Orthorin interposed and the rogue blushed in embarrassment, but retorted: <br/>“To be precise, wouldn’t it be more <em>logical</em> if he asked you instead, since you’re clearly the expert in that regard?” <br/>“I don’t think so”, the monk disagreed, “I don’t have the time anymore to play teacher. But I’m sure by now you should at least know the theory quite well. The repetition will do you good.” <br/>His little brother already started out to answer something, but after a short glance at Inean he abandoned whatever he was going to say, instead taking a sip from his glass and staying silent. <br/>And rightly so. Since Orthorin’s suggestion was simply reasonable, it would just appear childish to object. Maybe his little brother was finally starting to slowly learn after the constant contradicting earlier. Saewron really needed to stop feeling offended by every small skit against him. If he finally controlled his emotions, he could simply stand above such things.<br/>“But, excuse me. It wasn’t my intention to interrupt your story”, Orthorin addressed Inean again, “So, you started to hear the whispers, like we void elves do too, but you were also able to control the powers of the Void much more efficiently than we do now, right? You outright <em>killed</em> demons with it. At least that’s what your Horde colleagues told us.” <br/>“That’s partially correct”, the death knight explained, “As far as I understand it by now, I unknowingly made a pact with a creature of the Void that allowed me to use its magics. That’s something completely different from our access to the powers of the Void itself as ren’dorei.” He absentmindedly played with the drink in his hand, making the remaining content swirl inside the glass. “But unlike a warlock who can force a summoned demon to do as he bids, I wasn’t able to control that creature; instead it started to influence me… to drive me insane, without me fully realizing it.” <br/>An unusual excitement suddenly gripped Orthorin. “It tricked you; that’s why you got killed. But if we could control that creature….” <br/>The death knight abruptly put down his glass, the liquid frozen solid. “No. I don’t think it would work, Rin”, he stated in a firm tone, “That creature was too smart to be controlled. And strictly speaking... I wasn’t accidentally killed during that fight at the Emerald Bay – I <em>let</em> myself be killed. I had to prevent myself from becoming its pawn completely.” <br/>A tense silence followed his confession. Orthorin’s previous excitement turned into disappointment. So in the end this evening had still been a waste of time. He’d really hoped he would learn something useful from Inean – or Naethir, as his new name as death knight was – about another method of controlling the powers of the Void, but obviously that had been a dead end. Quite literally. <br/>Still, it would have been nice to simply have his older brother back and to gain with him another capable fighter for the ren’dorei, but after Naethir’s tale, it seemed that he more likely belonged to the likes of his little brother, who were at a constant risk to be driven insane by the whispers of the Void. In that case though, it was Orthorin, who now had to be the one to compensate both their shortcomings. Hence it was about time to get back to his squad and his work. <br/>Without any further questions he rose and unceremoniously bade his brothers goodbye.</p>
<p>During the following weeks, Orthorin and his fellow soldiers didn’t pay much attention to the Black Prince Wrathion’s shenanigans with his so called Horrific Visions, but instead attempted to push forward into Ny’alotha, the Waking City itself, to face off against his minions and N’Zoth directly. <br/>More and more often, the monk was the one of their squad who undertook the job of acting as one of the corps’ healers. Less people felt called to this important occupation, and in the end it was even more challenging than simple fighting. One had not only to just keep all the enemies in mind, but also all the comrades-in-arms. Additionally, the healing provided a compensation to all the killing and helped Orthorin to maintain his inner balance.<br/>Nonetheless, the monk seemed to feel N’Zoths growing influence on Azeroth too. With increasing frequency he still felt weary in the morning after he’d just gotten a good night’s sleep and struggled to bring himself to rise and attend the first morning drill. Those mornings he had to start his daily routine with a prolonged meditation, to gather his spirits and dissipate his fatigue. <br/>After all, he couldn’t allow himself to grow neglectful only because their current foe was stronger and more cunning than any he’d fought before. And besides; the pride of the ren’dorei rested upon his shoulders – at least in regard to the Dawncaller family.</p>
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  <br/>
  <strong>Shadowlands teaser:</strong>
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<ul>
<li>What may be the reason behind Orthorin’s morning tiredness if it does not pass with N’Zoth’s demise but instead increases?</li>
<li>Will Orthorin be able to fight on front and center or will he reach his limits during the new military challenges and hence be forced to work out other tactics to gain reputation in the Shadowlands?</li>
<li>Will the twins make it up with each other, especially under the influence of new (or renewed) acquaintances? And who exactly is Elarynn Moonsong?</li>
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  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Dear reader,<br/>You have now reached the end of this series, but not the end of the whole story!<br/>I can reassure you; the time of summarizing résumés has ended, though. In case you are interested in the further adventures of Levaindil and Acharin or the three brothers Naethir, Saewron and Orthorin as well as their friends, I’m happy to announce that you don’t have to wait until long after the launch of Shadowlands to continue with your reading. I’ve taken the time to start writing down some scenes out of my characters lives, that take place roughly in between Patch 8.3 and the Pre-Event. You will be able to – hopefully – enjoy these “Interludes” in the form of my next short series, which will begin shortly.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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